Quote

The life of Zen begins, therefore, in a disillusion with the pursuit of goals which do not really exist the good without the bad, the gratification of a self which is no more than an idea, and the morrow which never comes.

Alan Watts

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Alan Watts
Age: 58 †
Born: 1915
Born: January 6
Died: 1973
Died: November 16
Anglican Priest
Author
Dramaturge
Musician
Philosopher
Theologian
Videographer
Writer
Kent
England
Good
Therefore
Never
Goal
Disillusion
Life
Idea
Morrow
Comes
Gratification
Ideas
Goals
Without
Pursuit
Self
Begins
Really
Exist

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Our view of reality is like a chart of the sea - the truer it is, the less likely we will become lost.
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Without birth and death, and without the perpetual transmutation of all the forms of life, the world would be static, rhythm-less, undancing, mummified.
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...for since there is no real 'way' to sartori, the way you are following makes very little difference.
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Where do I begin and end in space? I have relations to the sun and air which are just as vital parts of my existence as my heart.
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Any systems approaching perfect self-control also approaches perfect self-frustration.
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Do not let the rapidity with which these thoughts can change deceive you into feeling that you think them all at once.
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To resist change, to try to cling to life, is therefore like holding your breath: if you persist you kill yourself.
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Nothing fails like success—because the self-imposed task of our society and all its members is a contradiction: to force things to happen which are acceptable only when they happen without force.
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I want ... to consort with people whose emotions are not ... cold and standoffish.
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The power of memories and expectations is such that for most human beings, the past and the future are not as real, but rather more real than the present.
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We do not come into this world we come out of it, as leaves from a tree. As the ocean waves, the universe peoples. Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe.
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I owe my solitude to other people.
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Faith is a state of openness or trust.
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The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple.
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...[W]ords can be communicative only between those who share similar experiences.
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The trouble with many religions, accused of wishful thinking, is that they are not wishful enough. They show a deplorable lack of imagination.
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The psychotherapist ... tries to help the individual to be himself and to go it alone without giving unnecessary offense to his community, to be in the world (of social convention) but not of the world.
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The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless.
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But I'll tell you what hermits realize. If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you'll come to understand that you're connected with everything.
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The religious idea of God cannot do full duty for the metaphysical infinity.
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